Then other friends started the D’light company and I started working for them in shaping the boards. We took pictures of it and as soon as we were back in Belgium, together with 2 friends, we bought all the necessary materials and started building our first boards.Ĭollege windsurfers asked me if I could make them a similar board and I sold a few boards. He gave us some demos on a self-made board that was light and only 3m long. On a trip to Lake Garda, we met Randy Naish, Robby’s brother. But that was still not what I was seeing in the magazines. In Cornwall (UK) there were some custom board builders making boards that were a little shorter and with a smaller dagger board. The only board available for riding in heavy seas was the windsurfer Rocket, but it was too long, I never even had one. Pictures of Robby Naish, Cort Larned, Matt Schweitzer, Jurgen Honscheid and many more jumping over waves in Hawaii were blowing my mind. Mainly the French Wind Magazine and the German Surf. There was no internet, so we were buying magazines. So when you were uphauling the sail, you had to be very careful as the mast often came out of the board!)Īs I said before, when I go for something it’s at 200%, so a few months later I was sponsored and going to all the local windsurf races. (Windfoil Zone: In the early days, the connection between the mast and the board itself wasn’t very good. You can’t imagine how scared I was that the mast could maybe pop out and hit me between the legs! This helped to lock the wooden block into the boards when uphauling to lift the wooden boom. I remember that we had to pull out grass from the lake shore and put it over the gap of the mast base. In 1977, my father took me to a windsurfing course with yellow Ten Cate windsurf boards. ![]() Joris: I started sailing at the age of 13, first optimist, later 420, and 470 on lakes in Belgium. WZ: Can you tell us a bit more D’light boards? When did it all get started? Winds are strong here during the whole summer and even if it gets lighter in the autumn, I’ve been mostly riding with over 20kts and rarely on flat water. Surffoiling isn’t possible for me right now, due to hip issues. Since then, I’ve been on the water, or better yet – above the water, including hard meetings with the surface, at least 3 or 4 times a week, mostly kitefoiling, secondly windfoiling and a few times supfoiling. In Tenerife, the demand for foilboards was growing so I decided that I needed to learn, or at least to know how to develop better boards for hydrofoil. On the kite, it was a disaster once more, but I managed to get foiling on the Naish Hover windfoil in my first attempt. I went to a Naish dealer meeting in Tarifa in June 2018 and got the chance to try kitefoiling again. So I decided it was not for me, especially because at that particular moment, I was fully into and focused on triathlons and trail-running.įinally, I had to stop trail-running because of an injury and considered getting back into water sports. I had an early try on a kiteboard, but was disappointed as I didn’t get more than 2 seconds on the foil in the first run. My relation with ShinnWorld (a kiteboard brand) and some Belgian friends gave me the opportunity to try foiling, even if in Tenerife it hadn’t appeared yet. Joris: Hydrofoil came into my life with kiting. When did your windfoil journey begin? Can you describe your first impressions? I have tried many times to do things with more moderation and consider other priorities, but it doesn’t work… That means, no compromises, I put everything else in my life completely on hold. Joris: I have dedicated most of my life to sports activities and when I start something, I go for it 200%. The ultimate board protector that doesn't get in the way. He has a very different view on foiling than most of the big brands and the common views on the new sport. With his long experience in the windsurfing world, we were curious to get Joris’ thoughts about the new foiling trend, and we were not disappointed. Not only that, he has been doing triathlons and trail-running for nearly 10 years, highlights being Ironman and Ultra Trail Mont Blanc. He has been making boards since 1979 for surfing, kitesurfing and now hydrofoil on any kind of boards.Īs an active sportsman, Joris enjoys skiing, snowboarding, and waterskiing. Joris has dedicated his life to windsurfing, always been driven by passion. D’light is only sold in Tenerife, to visitors and regular customers, so not much international exposure but nevertheless a strong reputation for high quality custom boards. Never heard about it? That’s actually not so surprising. We’ve had the chance to meet Joris of D’light, a board brand based in Tenerife, also making windsurf foiling board now.
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